Romanian-born scientist receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Oct 08, 2014 by Oana

Today, in Romania, one name is on everyone's lips: Stefan W. Hell. The German biochemist of Romanian origin, Stefan W. Hell, together with his 2 American colleagues Eric Betzig and William E. Moerner, has won the Nobel prize in Chemistry for the "the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy".

More precisely, the 3 scientists are the pioneers of the "nanoscopy", which allows physicians to "visualize the pathways of individual molecules inside living cells" with the help of the fluorescent molecules, pushing the optical microscopy a step forward.

This ground-breaking work is very important in the treatment of Parkinson, Alzheimer, Huntington, and cancer diseases.

Stefan W. Hell, who was born in Arad, is the first Romania-born Chemistry Laureate, although another Romanian (Gheorghe Emil Palade) received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 (for "discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell").

Currently, Stefan is the director of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, in Göttingen, and also he leads the German Cancer Research Center, in Heidelberg, Germany.

As Romanians, we are extremely proud of Stefan W. Hell's achievement! This not only gives everyone hope for a better & healthier life, but also prove that creativity and diligence can still lead to spectacular discoveries in science.